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April 10, 2012

G5: Blue Jays 7, Red Sox 3

Bard pitched better than his line (5-8-5-1-6, 96); it was a solid, promising start. Only one or two of Toronto's eight hits were well-hit (two were infield singles) and Justin Thomas - Bobby Valentine's first (and terrible) choice out of the bullpen with the Blue Jays up only 3-1 - allowed two inherited runners to score. He also allowed one of his own runners to cross, and the Blue Jays blew the game open 6-1.

After the game, Valentine admitted that leaving Thomas in to face more than one batter was "a dumb move". After Thomas walked Eric Thames, J.P. Arencibia cracked a two-run single. Colby Rasmus followed with a sac fly.

Just a dumb move. ... I don't like being dumb. I like doing what I'm supposed to do. I should have brought in Albers with the bases loaded, it might have been still a 3-1 game. We get a great ground ball there and maybe we would have won that game.

Bard threw 49 fastballs, 35 sliders, and 12 changeups (according to Brooks). His fastball started out between 95-97 in the early innings, but dipped to 92-94 as he tired in the sixth inning. He avoided his changeup in the first four innings, with 10 of the 12 coming in his last two innings. His pitch count by innings: 20-9-28 9-18-12.

The Red Sox made some noise in the ninth. With two outs, Nick Punto singled, Jacoby Ellsbury walked, Pedoria (3-for-5) singled, and Gonzalez (3 RBI) doubled in two runs. It cut the lead to 7-3 and put the potential tying run on deck. But David Ortiz was called out on strikes to end the game.

We made a decision this winter collectively to give him a chance to get stretched out in spring training and show us what he can do. We feel like he showed enough in spring training, enough development, to carry that into the season. If he can do that and do it well, and we believe he can, then there's a great long-term benefit to the organization. ... It's way too early in the season to talk about changing roles or reacting off a three-game series.

Ultimately, of course if things are not working deeper as we get deeper into the season, we'll consider changes, whether that involves a pitcher inside the organization, outside the organization, different roles, etc., but for right now, Daniel's going to start tomorrow. We'll see how this goes, and again, we feel like there's enough talent down there to get the job done.

If there is no one in the current bullpen that can hold a two- or three-run lead in the late innings, then it won't matter what Bard's role is. This team is doomed. Fortunately, that is not the case.

Thank [a whole lot of swearing] for Ben Cherington. I get the sense that because Valentine so freely speaks his mind to the media there may be a bunch of media-created dust-ups this season. It's good to know Cherington can put the kibosh on this kind of thing effectively. That said, I wouldn't be shocked if lots of talk radio types ignored his comments (then they'd actually have to do some research instead of just screaming in between commercial breaks for 3 hours).

Matty squared--I have a theory about this that I did a post about: If V is just his usual free-speakin' self, eventually he'll take the power away from the media. If a non-controversial person says something controversial, the media can run with that for months and it can affect the team. But if everything you say is potentially controversial, they can't make a big deal out of any one thing, because it's just another day in the life of V.

I'll judge them in a 162 game sample size. From the day to day, I'll look at a sample of 10 or 15 games, not 3. Even 10-15 is a small sample size, but it still provides a better idea of how the team is doing than a 3 gamer at the very beginning of the season.

Shakespeare victimized by thou BABIP gods tonight. From what I saw, he looked decent. No idea what the fuck Valentine was doing with Thomas (especially after saying yesterday that he needs to manage the pen) but again, oh well. Whatever happens in early April can be left there. As long as they get it right before too long.

Bobby gabbed all spring about having his players extra focused, working extra hard, etc. Should've used his own advice and studied the "copious amounts of information" at his disposal to figure out what to do with the bullpen instead of ad-hoc'ing it in the first couple of series...

One silver lining is that Bobby V. has a couple of times now taken the heat for the problems in the bullpen - when it really was his fault (like last night) and when it probably wasn't, during the Detroit series. It's not how his detractors said he'd behave, and it's good to see. If he continues to protect the players I could end up liking the guy.